If you’re looking for good stories in a preseason game, Cooper Rush’s return to Dallas works. Now the primary backup quarterback in Baltimore, Rush will be starting Saturday night in the place where he held that same job for most of the last eight years. Coincidentally, when Rush is on the sideline, he’ll be watching the Cowboys’ new QB reserves audition for his previous job.
If Rush were still a Cowboy, he’d be one of the team’s longest-tenured players behind Dak Prescott. An undrafted free agent in 2017, Rush became QB2 midway through his rookie year and remained such until 2020. He ended up with the Giants that offseason, following Jason Garrett out of Dallas, but didn’t find the same job security. He wound up released and eventually back on the Cowboys’ practice squad after injuries to Prescott and backup Andy Dalton. In 2021, Rush beat out the competition to once again be named the primary backup.
For the next four years, Rush would go from an afterthought to one of the league’s more respected reserve passers. He had a huge game in a win over the Vikings in 2021, then helped Dallas go 4-1 while starting in 2022. Rush had to start another eight games last season, going 4-4, and reminding the league that he can get the job done in an emergency.
It was good enough for the Ravens, who signed the 31-year-old to be Lamar Jackson’s backup in 2025. And given Baltimore’s annual status as an AFC contender, trusting Rush as QB2 is no small statement. The veteran clearly has earned some respect from his time with the Cowboys.
While seeing Rush again tonight will be a nice novelty, Cowboys fans are far more concerned with how the candidates for his job will perform. After nearly playing the entire game against the Rams last week, Joe Milton III is expected to get another heavy workload. Will Grier only got time in Los Angeles when Milton briefly hurt his arm, so we’ll see if injury is the only thing that takes Milton out against Baltimore.
One thing is for sure: Milton and Grier still have work to do to prove that they’re at least as worthy of being QB2 as Rush was. Granted, nobody knew what Rush was really capable of until those 2021-2022 performances. But with Milton’s only regular-season action coming in a Week 18 finale against Buffalo’s backups, and Grier having not taken a real snap since 2019, it creates a major x-factor for the year. And given that Dak Prescott’s availability is its own big question mark, that’s not much certainty for the most important position on the roster.
Cooper Rush’s return to Dallas will put a spotlight on the quarterbacks tonight, both in how he looks against his former team and how the new guys fare. If he performs how he used to in Cowboys preseason games, Rush could set the bar pretty high for Joe Milton III. Hopefully, we come away from the game happy with our new options and not pining for the guy we lost.
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